FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Rice: Unlike Inhofe, Coburn pushing for bipartisan solutions to financial crisis
Rice challenges Inhofe to support three guiding principles to protect Oklahomans
OKLAHOMA CITY ? With Jim Inhofe still watching from the sidelines as Congress debates a proposed $700 billion Wall Street bailout, moments ago Oklahoma’s junior senator, Tom Coburn, said in a speech on the Senate floor, “We’ve got to do what’s right ? and we should not leave here until this is solved.” Coburn even contacted Sen. Barack Obama Wednesday to suggest Obama and Sen. John McCain issue a joint statement that might break the partisan gridlock surrounding an economic recovery plan.
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Andrew Rice on Wednesday said, “Two days ago I called a press conference on this crisis and recognized Senator Coburn for saying, ‘Congress has known about these problems for years, but did nothing because [they] were so obsessed with short-term politics … to do the hard work of oversight and reform that was necessary to avert this mess.’”
“I couldn’t agree with Senator Coburn more, and I commend him for his leadership in working to find a bipartisan solution to this crisis.”
“My office has received many calls and emails from outraged Oklahomans upset that they are being asked to pay for the abuses and failures of Wall Street, this Administration, and those in Congress who turned a blind eye,” Rice said. “Count me among the angriest of Oklahomans.”
Rice said that if Jim Inhofe is unable to provide leadership for Oklahoma, he will, adding that if he were in the U.S. Senate, he would only support a bailout plan that included the following three provisions to protect Oklahomans:
1. Meaningful oversight. “We must have responsible regulators who will hold investment bankers accountable and not look the other way while the fox invades the hen house.”
2. Taxpayers get a stake. “If every Oklahoma family is paying $10,798 for this bailout, they deserve to share in the benefits when and if these financial institutions get back on their feet.”
3. Limits on executive compensation. “Taxpayer dollars should not be used as golden parachutes that line the pockets of the corporate executives who created these problems.